A Kansas assistant attorney general is urging state lawmakers to require mandatory $2,500 fines against anyone convicted of paying for sex, even if they receive diversion.

Pat Colloton testified Monday that a state fund to help human trafficking victims is in danger of going broke because many people convicted of patronizing prostitutes are given diversion but not fined.

BISMARCK – A Missouri man is accused of prostituting his 41-year-old wife from China at a Bismarck hotel.

Marvin Rex Lord, 67, of Festus, Mo., was arrested Thursday and charged Friday in Burleigh County District Court with facilitation of prostitution, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Last week, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Christopher Thyer, announced that a Little Rock man, alleged to have been a pimp and trafficker, was convicted in federal court on one count of sex trafficking.

What do a 14-year-old kidnap victim, runaway Kansas teenagers, and the now-adult child whose parents groomed and sold her for sex starting at age 10 have in common? They are all real examples of victims of human trafficking, modern day slavery right here in the United States.

Problem: Too many sex trafficking victims are not being found or helped in the United States because too many local governments are ignorant of state and federal human trafficking laws. Compounding this problem, cities and counties are lagging behind, not revising their laws to bring them into line with state law, and in some cases are even enacting new local legislation directly at odds with state law protecting human trafficking victims.

Dr. Deborah Hume, associate teaching professor in the Masters of Public Health Program at University of Missouri-Columbia, offered an informational presentation on human trafficking in Missouri at St. Edwards Catholic Parish Hall in Cassville on Sept. 7.

BENTONVILLE – Legislators, community leaders and concerned citizens filled Peterson Auditorium at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville on Thursday (June 28) for Arkansas’ first Legislative Summit on Human Trafficking. This was the third day of the conference, that began Tuesday in Little Rock.